Open DWF/DWFx Files in Google Chrome

From a browser perspective, for the longest time you were only able to view DWF/DWFx files in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Last year, we provided version 1.0 of the Firefox Add-on for Autodesk Design Review to enable this functionality in Mozilla Firefox.

Time marches on. The latest update to the Firefox add-on, version 1.1, and a minor Windows registry modification can enable Google Chrome to view DWF/DWFx files too.

First things first.

With recent versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Design Review (2009, 2010, or 2011) on your computer, download and install the Firefox Add-on for Autodesk Design Review version 1.1. (If you previously installed version 1.0 of the add-on, version 1.1 will update it automatically.)

Now for the registry tweak.

Open the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe).

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dwf.

In the Registry Editor's right pane, double-click Content Type. The Edit String dialog box opens and Model/vnd.dwf is shown in the Value Data text box.

Change the capital letter “M” in Model/vnd.dwf to a lowercase “m” so it looks like this model/vnd.dwf

Click OK to update the value.

Exit the Registry Editor.

You can now open DWF/DWFx files in Chrome either by dragging and dropping them into the browser or by opening HTML files with embedded DWF/DWFx files.

Let us know how it works for you!

Warning!Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft has provided a wealth of critical information you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support.Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined in ARTICLE-ID: Q132332 "How to Back Up the Registry" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.

CAD Tools On A Wild Ride

Jon Titus wrote this great article in designnews and I thought I share it with you all.

"When the team at Dynamic Structures designed and built the large Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope enclosure on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano, no one foresaw the company's future expansion to design, fabricate and assemble amusement rides. "Think of an amusement ride not as a structure but as a large complete machine and you'll understand the connection," says senior designer Craig Breckenridge.

Dynamic Structures designs roller coasters and theme-type rides. A roller-coaster vehicle rides along a track and nothing else occurs, except some screaming and white knuckles. The passengers just go along for the ride. In a theme ride, though, the vehicle travels along a track and interacts with things along the way. "For a theme ride, we work with a large team from the buying company," says Breckenridge. "So we regularly review and exchange many drawings and models. And we must design and fabricate rides with small tolerances. In a 1.5-mile ride, for example, we have many sections and we must keep the gap between them to within 30 thousandths of an inch."

"Most of the time we use Autodesk's Inventor for part of a ride and AutoCAD for the remainder," says Breckenridge. "The programs function differently and offer different capabilities. Here's an example: Most rides and roller coasters include mechanical track switches that let operators remove a vehicle or route a ride onto a different path. We create the switches in Inventor because they represent compact machines compared with the structure and mechanics of the rest of the ride."

"Often we create a track in AutoCAD and use Inventor to design a vehicle," continues Breckenridge. "Then we can put them together in 3D Studio (3ds) and produce an animation that shows what a ride will look like. We use Navisworks for visualization and dynamic simulation. Then we can play the video animation for clients so they can see what the vehicle looks like as seen from a spot on the ground. Or, we can show them what the ride looks like from the front seat."

"Navisworks also lets us check the reach envelope, or the space a passenger can reach from a moving vehicle," says Breckenridge. "We must ensure they can't reach out during the ride and touch something as they go past. We also run dynamic simulations that tell us the forces a passenger will experience during a ride. This analysis gives us the maximum g-force experienced on the center line of the rails. But we also must know the g-force on the passenger's heart line, or roughly just above the center of a human torso. When someone sits in a seat, their body can still move, much like a lever, and experience greater g forces than we would measure along the track's center line. We want to ensure a ride doesn't put too much strain on the rider.""